


SotBH: Take it Easy

by LeoArcana



Series: Bath House 'verse [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha Castiel, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Emotional Dean, Injury Recovery, Loving Castiel, M/M, Male Lactation, Nursing, Omega Dean, Post Childbirth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-15
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-08-15 03:31:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8040817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoArcana/pseuds/LeoArcana
Summary: Dean's always been a quick healer, but he's severely overestimated himself this time.





	SotBH: Take it Easy

The night following the birth had been a bit tense.  Castiel tried his best not to fret over Dean, to let him rest, but it was too hard.  From what the midwife had told him, he was scared that if Dean closed his eyes, he might not open them again.  But eventually, Castiel became too tired himself and fell asleep with his arms wound tightly around Dean; one across his shoulders and the other around his thinned waist, giving Holly plenty of room.

Thankfully, Holly wasn't fussy about anything.  She was content to nurse until she fell asleep.  Dean had just enough energy to shift her ever so slightly in his arms, bringing her mouth away from his chest.  She scrunched up her face in slight annoyance, but otherwise did nothing.  Dean yawned and slipped off to sleep not even a minute later.

Morning had come much too soon.  Both in Dean's opinion and in fact.  The midwife had come in just before the crack of dawn to wake him for no reason other than to make sure he'd made it through the night.  Castiel grumbled at the disturbance and tightened his hold on his mate.  Dean snuggled closer to him as the midwife left, quietly promising she would be back in a few hours.  Not long after, one of Castiel's advisors came in to wake him.  They were profusely apologetic, but he did still have responsibilities that needed tending too.  Despite that, Castiel snapped at them to leave.  Maybe a little harsher than he'd intended to, but yesterday had been incredibly stressful and he was exhausted.  He felt guilty for telling himself he was exhausted; compared to Dean, he didn't have the slightest bit of right to call himself exhausted.

Two hours passed and both the midwife and an advisor came in.  The two of them silently bickered over who should wake either one of them first; the advisor lost.  He cautiously moved closer to the sleeping pair and did his best not to wake Dean, though the midwife would do so shortly, as he reached out and shook Castiel’s shoulder.  Castiel grumbled and jerked his shoulder away, pulling Dean and Holly closer.  The advisor chewed his lip and shook Castiel’s shoulder again, this time quietly calling his name.

Just as with the first advisor, Castiel snapped at him to go away.  But this advisor was more persistent and took no offense to Castiel’s tone.  He kept prodding and prompting Castiel as gently as could without bothering Dean and Holly, but forceful enough that Castiel couldn’t ignore him. 

After several minutes, Castiel groaned in resignation.  He laid still for a second before slowly withdrawing his arms from Dean and moving the blankets and pillows to replace his body heat against Holly as he sat up.  Dean noticed the absence immediately and blinked his eyes open, looking up at Castiel with a sleepy, confused and pleading expression.  Castiel leaned over and kissed Dean gently, murmuring he had to go, then apologizing and giving him a handful of butterfly kisses.  His hand trailed down Dean’s arm as he got up and Dean’s fingers caught his, threading between them.  Castiel looked down at his mate, who looked on the verge of tears, and found himself frozen. 

Castiel started to move to get back into bed, but the advisor caught his free wrist the second Castiel’s muscles twitched.  He went with the advisor reluctantly, telling Dean he would be back as soon as he could and, in the same breath, telling the advisor he wasn’t in the mood for anything remotely trivial today.  If he was going to be forced away from his mate and newborn pup, it had better be for something of importance.

The midwife was relieved to not have to be the one to wake Dean now.  She hurried over to the bed side and started checking over him; asking him to open his eyes, to speak, feeling for fever and pulse.  It was annoying and worse off, she was starting to wake Holly.  The last thing the midwife wanted to do was to check how Dean’s stitches had held through the night.  She prodded Dean to roll on his back, but he refused.  He was tired, now irritated, and Holly was snuggled to his chest.  The midwife huffed and rucked the sheets up, exposing his bare ass to the brisk air.  Dean shivered and curled up, trying to minutely move back under the blankets.

The midwife placed a hand on his hip to stop him from moving and gave him a stern look.  She was compromising already; he didn’t need to take it further.  All she asked him to do was lift his leg enough to let her see the stitching.  Dean sighed and started to lift his leg; it felt like lead and was taking what little energy he had to move.  The midwife noticed the struggle and hooked one hand under his thigh to help.  She didn’t move his leg, she wasn’t sure if he would have any pain, but she helped hold. 

For a second, she was surprised Dean wasn’t in pain.  But no sooner had she thought that than white hot pain shoot up through Dean’s body and choked a yelp out of him.  He dropped his leg and drew both knees up, antagonizing the pain with the motion.  He bit down a cry and tensed his muscles without drawing in on himself.  The midwife waited until he relaxed and calmly told him it would be easier if he were on his back.  He shook his head again and took several deep breaths before lifting his leg once more. 

He managed to get it up high enough this time and choked out for her to be quick.  Her fingers were ice cold against his tender flesh, heated from both pain and the warmth of the blankets.  Thankfully, she was quick.  The tear looked agitated from the pull of the stitches, but otherwise looked to have been sewn perfectly.  She pulled the blankets back over him and told him he would need to take things very easy and slowly for a little while.  The size of the wound wasn’t the worst Dean had had, far from it, but given the location, it would prove to be one of the more severe ones.

As she left, she informed him someone would be by to bring him breakfast shortly.  Dean huffed and rolled his eyes as he started to settle back down.  Holly woke up at the sound of the door shutting and started fussing.

“I know, I don’t wanna be awake either,” Dean croaked.

He shifted and hushed her, gently cooing at her as he stroked the side of her face with the back of his fingers.  She quieted down a bit, but he could tell she wasn’t going to go back to sleep.  Dean circled an arm around her and took a deep breath before he made an effort to roll on his back and scoot back to sit up.  The nurse was right, this was going to be the most severe injury he’d suffered.  Even that simple task had pain racing through his core and made him sweat and pant.  It really was all the location.

Dean dropped his head back against the headboard, breathing deeply through his nose and gritting his teeth.  Holly’s lower lip trembled and tears welled in her eyes; Dean was quick to stuff his pain down as best he could and turn his attention back to her.  He shifted Holly in his arms, speaking softly to her again to get her to calm down; when she didn’t, he figured she might be hungry.  Dean chewed his lower lip, now thinking with a clearer mind and feeling like it was weird.  In addition to the feeling, Dean still wasn’t entirely sure what to do.  The handmaiden had helped him in his daze yesterday.  He decided to wing it, telling himself it wasn’t as hard as he was making it out to be in his head, and moved Holly closer to his chest.  To his relief, she was smart enough (or just hungry enough) to latch on herself.

Dean tipped his head back against the headboard in relief and tried not to think too much on the sensation.  When Holly stopped, he glanced down at her to see a sated smile as she balled her hands up and gurgled at him.

“I think I’m supposed to burp you now…” Dean thought aloud.

He remembered seeing his mom do it for Sam.  He sat up a little straighter and moved Holly to his shoulder.  He didn’t have the energy to actually get out of bed yet, but the bed was springy enough to give him the little bounce he needed without much effort.  He patted her, talking and singing softly to her again, and felt a brief moment of pride when she burped.  The pride was immediately stricken by the feeling of spit up hitting his shoulder and trailing down.  Dean mentally cursed himself for forgetting to grab something to cover himself.

He moved Holly again to cradle her and gave her a light bitch face; she just smiled and tried to laugh.  Dean sighed, knowing he had to get out of bed now.  He didn’t want to lean back and rub it in the pillows.  He took a deep breath and threw his legs over the edge of the bed.  A small gasp managed to slip past his gritted teeth, but otherwise he kept his reaction under control.  He took a moment to let the pain begin to subside before he even dared to stand up.

As soon as he stood up, he felt dizzy and sat back down.  Holly cooed and reached up at his face.  Dean indulged her, ducking his head down within her reach with a weak smile and brought a hand up to toy with hers.  He then straightened up again and got to his feet; he still felt a wave of dizziness, but not as bad.  He moved slowly towards the bath, doing his best not to cry or drop to his knees after the first couple steps had made it very clear he was not going to be moving like normal.

Getting in the bath posed more of a problem.  There were steps.  He debated just going back to bed, the spit up was almost dry now, but he’d made it this far and going back without taking a little break seemed daunting.  He stood at the edge of the bath, Holly watching him curiously, then tentatively lowered one foot.  He sucked in a sharp breath at the strain on the stitches, but it wasn’t unbearable.  He took it one step at a time and was relieved when the pleasantly warm water reached his waist.

Dean sank back down on the steps, keeping the water below Holly and sighed as the warmth soaked in.  Holly squirmed in his arms, gurgling and cooing, but never fussy.  He moved her to his opposite side and rinsed his shoulder off, then settled on the steps.  He watched her with a fond smile and played with her tiny hands, ducking down to nuzzle her face once in a while.  She was perfectly happy, which helped Dean to relax more, and nursed one more time before falling asleep in his arms.  He leaned back to relish in the warm water for another minute before trying to get up, only to find his body uncooperative.  He felt a lump in his throat, but swallowed it down; maybe he just needed another minute.

He tried again, but his body only rewarded his efforts with white hot pain cutting between his legs and his muscles pulling themselves apart.  He laid back against the steps with a pained whine, bringing the water up higher, but only enough to get Holly’s legs wet.  He tried to control his whimpering as the pain progressed to throbbing in a full body ache.

Holly kicked and wiggled, fascinated but wary of the new feeling of water, but one look at her father’s strained face had her lower lip trembling.  Dean panicked and tried to shush her before she cried, but his quickened movements worsened the pain.  He took in deep lungfuls of air to calm himself and control his shaking as tears brimmed his eyes.  His breathing hitched and Holly began to cry.

Still, he tried to hold himself together enough to not distress her.  But the moment she began to wail, he came undone.

 

And that was how Castiel and a servant found him twenty minutes later; hunched over and crying with his wailing daughter in his arms.

Castiel shoved past the servant, nearly knocking Dean’s breakfast from the man’s hands.  He didn’t give it a second thought as he ran into the bath, his clothes quickly soaking up water and becoming heavy.  He was more concerned with fretting over his crying mate and daughter.

“It— It h-hurts,” Dean hiccuped, “A-and I c-can’t stop and…and she can’t s-stop.”

“Dean, _Dean_.  It’s alright, I—“

“No!” Dean barked, “It’s not alright!”

“Okay, it’s not,” Castiel conceded, “But it will be, I promise.”

Dean hiccupped and sniffed.

“Let me have Holly,” Castiel said softly.

“What?”

“Let me have her.”

“B-but I…”

Dean hadn’t let go of her since the midwife had handed her to him.  The idea of letting go now brought on a fresh wave of tears.  Castiel’s lip curled in frustration, not at Dean’s crying, but at not being able to immediately help.  Castiel turned and sat down on the steps, wrapping both Dean and Holly in his arms.  Dean winced and trembled, Holly cried in protest of the wet clothing pressing against her.  She squirmed and pushed at his arm, but Castiel didn’t move.

The both of them cried for another five minutes before Holly finally wore herself out and quieted down to hiccupping.  Shortly after, Dean did the same.  Castiel waited another beat before asking Dean to give him Holly again.  Dean drew in a ragged breath and reluctantly passed her into Castiel’s arms.

Castiel stood, waterlogged clothes pulling on him as he stepped out of the bath.  He walked swiftly over to their bed, hushing and cooing at Holly.  He laid her down gently, pulling blankets and pillows around to her to keep her from rolling as he had been advised by one of the handmaidens earlier.  Dean started to object and tripped over his words, but Castiel quieted him with promises that it was okay, that he’d been told that was acceptable. 

Castiel stepped down into the water again and kneeled beside Dean.  He gingerly worked one hand under his knees and the other behind his back, pulling him close.  Dean wiped the tears from his face and leaned into Castiel, wrapped his arms around his neck.  As he lifted him out of the water, Castiel looked at the servant and nodded his head towards the stack of neatly folded towels.  The servant hurried over and grabbed a fistful, then went ahead of Castiel.  He laid one down on the bed just before Castiel sat Dean down.  Castiel kept one hand on Dean’s shoulder to keep him steady while he took another towel from the servant and began drying Dean off.

“This is stupid,” Dean mumbled quietly, “And pathetic and humiliating and—“

“No, it’s not,” Castiel interrupted sternly, “The only stupid thing was you trying to get up and move with no one around.”

Dean dropped his gaze.

“But you making it as far as you did is not pathetic, it’s impressive.  And there is no humiliation in me taking care of you.”

Dean huffed and cracked a small smile.  Castiel let himself smile as well, moving down to dry off one of Dean’s legs.

“Holly spit up on me,” Dean blurted.

“What?”

“After, uh… After nursing her, I was burping her.  She spit up on me, it was kinda gross,” Dean explained, “I didn’t wanna get it on the blankets, so….”

Castiel snorted and dropped his head.

“I think that’s something we’ll have to get used to,” Castiel laughed softly.

“No, you’ll have to get used to it.  She can throw up on your fancy clothes.”

“Oh, really?  You’re assigning me to burping her?”

“Yes.  I carried her for months, almost died and I nurse her.  You can burp her,” Dean stated, “And change her diapers, while I’m at it.”

“Such a princess,” Castiel chided.

Dean shook his head; he knew it was a tease at him, but it could be deflected to Holly.  Castiel finished drying him off and helped him to lay back down.  Castiel covered him up as he brought Holly close again, then went to peel his heavy, soaked clothes off.  He dried himself and pulled on new clothes, then went back to the bed and sat on top of the covers beside Dean.  The servant came over with the momentarily forgotten food and Castiel took the tray from him, dismissing him.  Castiel dug the spoon into the hot cereal and started to bring a spoonful to Dean’s mouth.

“Are you really gonna feed me?” Dean asked.

“Do you want to let go of Holly again?”

“…no,” Dean admitted.

“Then yes, I am.”

**Author's Note:**

> YAY finally someone sent a prompt for this series after so many people said they would and this one gives me feels  
> prompt: it's been forever since SotBH ended and I can't help but still worry about dean! can you do a short sequel just so I know he's ok?
> 
>  
> 
> [want a prompt?](http://leo-arcana.tumblr.com/ask)


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